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25.01.2022 It is with sadness that HydroSun has learned of the passing of the great Tony Coote AM. Known to many through 2 episodes of Australian Story, Tony was a visionary and a champion of natural sequence farming. Australia has lost a man prepared to roll his sleeves up and get stuck in. Moreover he was prepared to bankroll the work of The Mulloon Institute which brings a scientific approach to analysing the effect of leaky weirs, which hydrate the landscape, and ensure environmental flows of water through rivers and creeks is more even. Tony was a man who appreciated all that Australia did for him through his business Angus & Coote, and who spent the last chapter of his life giving back. He will be missed.

20.01.2022 Interesting article about energy storage and how Australia is missing out on this economic boom https://www.theguardian.com//renewables-could-reliably-con

16.01.2022 HydroSun is putting the finishing touches on our draft Market-Led Proposal for a 40MW floating solar farm, and 200MWh "big battery" for Townsville. While Ross River Dam (owned and managed by Townsville City Council) is very much 'in play' we are also in discussions with SunWater, who manage Burdekin Falls Dam upstream for the Queensland Government. Regardless of whether the floating solar farm is situated on one of these dams or another dam in the district, we hope it can ...be achieved for the people of Townsville. As Townsville Enterprise knows, 1200 new jobs are sorely needed in that part of regional Australia, with amongst the highest levels of unemployment in Queensland. Given COAG unanimously agreed in 2017 that Australia will need at least 12,000MWh of electricity storage over the next dozen years to achieve energy security, what better way than to commercialise 2 Australian inventions, now used all around the world to generate clean energy and to store dispatchable power. #IdeasBoomAU #AdvanceQueensland

14.01.2022 It is 2 years to the day since Tony Coote OAM of (United Nations Sustainable Development Goals partner agency) The Mulloon Institute seized his opportunity at Wombat Hollow Forum, and challenged the conventional thinking around water storage. Kicking off the Q&A session after PM Malcolm Turnbull's speech about 'water policy', Coote suggested that since a huge volume of water is lost from Australian dams each year, through evaporation, should we not re-think the dam-building... spree on which the federal government is embarked... ...and consider a "water bank" scheme instead. This idea is presumably to help landowners replicate successful Mulloon efforts to slow down the flow of water through creeks and rivers, using "leaky weirs". The PM was decidedly cool on the water bank idea. Knowing what we now do, about the attitudes of many horticulturalists towards the Murray Darling Basin Plan, imagine making water sharing and environmental flows less transparent or harder to measure, manage and enforce? Turnbull could have answered this by pointing to: 1) the economic multiplier benefits of hard infrastructure spend; 2) the fact of the Coalition's election was based in large part on the Northern Australia Plan (which is strong on water infrastructure); 3) the Australian Infrastructure Plan (which focuses on building economic diversity and resilience, while achieving savings through "value capture"). Instead he focused on the Centennial Parklands Reservoir WS001). If you live in Sydney city or its eastern suburbs, chances are you've caught a glimpse of its ornate gates and ring fence (off the right of Old South Head Road if driving towards Bondi Junction). They encircle a water body which is covered to minimise evaporation. And he spoke of water that feeds a bubler at a lower elevation at Centennial Park, filtered through sandstone, saying "I've always thought water is best kept underground in aquefers. We think he meant to say, "until the Australian invention of floating solar farms, I've always thought water is best kept underground" http://www.wroughtartworks.com/centennial-park-reservoir-ga

14.01.2022 HydroSun has lodged a preliminary ‘Market Led Proposal’ with Queensland Treasury to install a 40MW solar farm on Ross River Dam and 200MWh of storage generating sufficient cheap energy to pump sufficient water to Townsville to make water restrictions a thing of the past. By supplying the energy to the grid during peak demand times, it would reduce the cost of electricity. If funded and owned by Ergon or ‘CleanCo’, the state government would have a powerful tool to keep loca...l energy prices in check. If the infrastructure was gifted to Townsville Council, a profit of $29m per annum in addition to free water, will free up ratepayer funds currently spent powering the Houghton Pipeline pumps, and reduce the cost of running the Douglas Water Treatment Plant. After polling day (this 25th November), we will resume meetings with Treasury officials, MP and Councillors, on the project detail. Meanwhile, we’re keen to hear your views!

14.01.2022 Publishing our series of infographics on the Water For Townsville Action Group (WFTAG) page during the Queensland election generated much discussion about whether 'floating solar' tech could withstand a Category 5 cyclone. An important, and quite valid, concern. WFTAG is a great grass roots community action forum, much like Brisbane's 'Flood Affected Businesses And Households' (FABAH). Today, Hydrosun will meet IAG, one of the authors of "Building Resilience to Natural Dis...asters" in the wake of Cyclone Yasi, the Wivenhoe dam flood, and Tasmanian bushfires, and group business NRMA, a policy thought leader on electric motor vehicles: http://australianbusinessroundtable.com.au//DAE%20Roundtab We will have a prototype solar float put through its paces at the James Cook University Cyclone Testing Station (CTS) in coming weeks. In the unlikely event our latest registered design cannot withstand a Category 5 event, we will invite a global engineering firm to design a solar array that can be re-oriented in the event of strong winds (so that these devices act more like car 'spoilers', than 'sails'). And we will also work with SunWater who manage Burdekin Falls Dam, upstream from the Ross River Dam, and several other water bodies for the Queensland government, to determine which dam is the 'best fit' for our technology. WFTAG is keen to see clean tech and battery storage adopted, in line with Australia's first City Deal signed on 9 December 2016. This is aimed at job creation, economic growth, investment in local infrastructure. For us, it's not just delivering 1200 jobs for Townsville Enterprise, cheaper electricity through "load shifting", #EnergySecurity and #WaterSecurity. It is also telling a "story", just as the Chinese have adopted this Australian technology on a lake that was once a coal mine: http://money.cnn.com//china-floating-solar-farm/index.html JCU, UNSW and The Mulloon Institute will test our hypothesis that solar floats also encourage fish (which eat mosquito larvae, thereby reducing population health risk of Ross River Fever and other tropical disease). That research will be conducted while also contributing to the existing international body of research that exists on water quality benefits (water weeds, algae, bacteria) and water volume savings, through evaporation mitigation, referenced here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floating_solar Time will tell if Queensland or NSW will be the first states to achieve a significant (40MW-200MWh) floating solar farm and vanadium redox battery. Australia has it's work cut out reclaiming the lead in commercialising this country's leading inventions. But under the National Innovation and Science Agenda #IdeasBoomAU we know any challenge can be overcome with the engineering, transparency, and a whole-of-government approach. https://www.hydrosun.com.au///Solving-Queenslands-Trilemma

12.01.2022 Hydrosun has a solution to Townsville's water and electricity problems. Let us know what you think!

10.01.2022 How can Hydrosun make electricity cheaper for the people of Townsville?

05.01.2022 My nephew Harrison Cook, who can recite the entire periodic table faster than Tom Lehrer, tells me that [Ah!] is the "element of surprise". Many in the scienti...fic community still think it's the 23rd element, Vanadium. In 1986 a Greek Australian, Emeritus Professor Maria Skyllas-Kazacos (AM) of UNSW surprised the scientific community when she proved (after NASA tried and failed) that a Vanadium Redox (flow) Battery, or VRB, can be designed to hold dispatchable power. She was awarded a medal in the Order of Australia. Years later, US President Barrack Obama asked his Department of Energy what the world's best battery is for industrial grid purposes. They advised it is the VRB. Nowadays this battery storage is used the world over to store electricity at an industrial scale. One of the most surprising things about Vanadium is it is a by-product of shale oil refining. Using a by product of petroleum refining to end petroleum refining is a difficult, counter-intuitive, thing to "sell" therefore. But, as JFK once said, "we choose to do these things...not because they are easy but because they are hard". The second most surprising thing about the Vanadium Redox Battery is that Australia, in this age of the "ideas boom", where battery storage technology is much better appreciated by the mainstream public, has yet to embrace its own invention(!) Here is an Australian invention, adopted by many countries, that 1) has a levelised cost of ONE THIRD that of Lithium Ion 2) lasts 8 times longer than Lithium Ion 3) does not catch fire/explode 4) holds a charge indefinitely when idle 5) can dispatch power instantly (multiple cycles per day) without affecting the durability of the battery. I decided this year I would join the NSW National Party. Because the entire Energy Policy Committee came out to UNSW to learn about the technology. And I want to be part of a team that takes a real interest in good policy development. Australia has yet to begin manufacturing VRBs but we are well on the way towards that goal. What gives me confidence this will eventually happen, is a motion by @MegNielsen, seconded by Energy Policy Committee member Fiona Leviny, and backed by NSW Parliamentary Secretary for Renewables Ben Franklin, was passed unanimously by state conference recently: "That this conference calls on all levels of government to prioritise the transition to modern efficient technologies for reliable energy generation, storage and transmission".

05.01.2022 Water Restrictions - a thing of the past for Townsville if the market led proposal by Australian invention, Hydrosun, is adopted.

04.01.2022 Today we published the third in our series of four infographics, to generate discussion about our proposal to deliver a 40MW floating solar farm, and 200MWh atorage solution. Join the conversation online at WATER FOR TOWNSVILLE ACTION GROUP

03.01.2022 Today, the @WaterForTownsvilleActionGroup published the second in our series of infographics. Jump online and join the discussion!

03.01.2022 As we reach the half-way mark in this Queensland election campaign let's remember the overwhelming majority of politicians pursue careers as public servants despite the longer hours, and lower pay, most could get in the private sector. We planned to deliver a tri-fold brochure to all households in Magnetic Island, Hinchinbrook, Thurangowa and Townsville during the campaign, to secure a firm policy commitment (for a 40MW floating solar farm and 200MWh "big battery") Instead, w...e've opted to publish a series of 4 infographics on the WATER FOR TOWNSVILLE ACTION GROUP facebook page. This group is scrupulously non-partisan, and doggedly determined to achieve the best infrastructure solution for Townsville. Election campaigns always highlight the difference between parties, but whatever the composition of the next parliament, there's more than enough common ground to deliver a range of benefits for the city. 1) We're grateful to the LNP leader (and Shadow Energy Minister Michael Hart MP) for first highlighting the potential of "floating solar" for Townsville in keynote speeches. 2) We're relieved that Queensland Labor has backed the principle of battery storage (the 200MWh "big battery" we propose for Townsville is a fraction of the 12,000MWh recommended by The Finkel Review). 3) Credit is due Katter's Australian Party for their long term pursuit of economic value capture from "multi use water infrastructure". 4) Likewise, props to Pauline Hanson's One Nation. We agree that Australia ought to retain value chain benefit of domestic manufacturing, instead of "digging and shipping" tech metals to other manufacturing nations. Keep up the good work WFTAG!

01.01.2022 Well, it's a dam site better than situating solar panels over 0.5% of the state's agricultural land!